A New Adventure

Hello all! It's been a while since my last post, but if any of you were interested I wanted to keep you updated on my new adventure.

Monday morning (5:30, behind schedule, of course) I left the comforts of my warm bed and set off for Pueblo, a small town about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs - and a 17 hour drive, approximately. I followed I-15 until Barstow, where I turned east on I-40. By 9:30 I was crossing into Arizona. After a quick stop for coffee (which turned out to be almost undrinkable - who knew truckers liked their coffee so sickly sweet?) I was on my way again, up through the beautiful, and unexpected, forest around Flagstaff and right on through to Holbrook, a dusty highway town which just happened to be the halfway point of my journey. I was already tired, and more than a little numb, but prepared to press on after a Taco Bell lunch. I crossed into New Mexico at about 3 (well, 4 with the time change). This part of the drive took me through the painted desert, which was just a gorgeous sight. I tried to take some pictures, but I had to concentrate on not driving off the road.

I hit Albuquerque around sunset - and just in time for rush hour - at about 6, and then pushed on through towards Santa Fe as it was getting dark - just in time for the thunderstorm. I was getting low on gas by this point, but couldnt seem to find a gas station open (gas stations CLOSE at 7?! What do you mean?) and I was loathe to drive 4 miles off the freeway to try to find one. After the gas light went on I started to get a little worried, especially coupled with the imposing absolute black of nighttime in the middle of nowhere. I finally found gas, but by then I had had enough of driving, so I decided to stay the night in Las Vegas (woohoo). Las Vegas, New Mexico, that is!

After a refreshing night at the Super 8 Las Vegas I continued my drive towards Pueblo. I was grateful after just a few hours on the road that I hadn't wasted all that beautiful scenery by driving through at night. Out there in that country, it's easy to see where that romantic notion of "the west" comes from - morning mist rising from wide open valleys; the occasional spattering of farm houses surrounded by horses and cattle.

Anyway, I finally arrived in Pueblo close to 11 a.m. and came straight into the Obama Headquarters in downtown Pueblo. I was a little apprehensive when I saw all of the smokestacks as I was driving in on the freeway, and as I drove past the steel mill on the way in. I know that this is the reality in much of America, especially the politically important parts, but it's been so built up in my mind that I thought it was more myth than reality. But no, there is a steel mill. Once I got past the outskirts though, it turns out that Pueblo is really a very cute town with what looks like a lot of history and plenty of old-west buildings around. I'll try to take a few pictures once I get my camera battery charged.

My first assignment was to head over to the “staging location” in south Pueblo. This is a fancy name for their offices in south Pueblo, which is also kind of silly since it’s such a small town. So I drove the five blocks to the “staging location” and met up with Simon, who took me out to teach me how to canvas.

Canvassing. This is something I was NOT at all looking forward to. I’m not a particularly good or forceful salesman and I do not like disturbing people, especially if they might get upset with me disturbing their peace and quiet. Thankfully I missed the part of the campaign that was spent trying to convert McCain supporters or undecideds. Since early voting has already started here In Pueblo, our emphasis now is on encouraging the Obama supporters to actually vote. This means that most of the people I talked to are already “on my side” so more likely to be nice to me.

Or that’s the idea. The reality is that the vast majority of people either aren’t home or don’t answer the door when I knock. And of those who do, a good proportion just tell me that the person I am looking for doesn’t live there anymore. And occasionally the new occupant is a McCain supporter/anarchist/crazy person. But this is actually kind of rare. Mostly the canvassing was uneventful, but good exercise.